First Science

Astronomy is often considered the oldest science

Astronomy is widely regarded as the oldest of the natural sciences. Systematic observations of the sky for calendars, seasons, navigation, and ritual purposes predate written records and other formalized disciplines across many ancient cultures.

As noted in a 2020 article from Astronomy magazine: "Initially a cosmic curiosity, the night sky was eventually decoded by ancient peoples, making astronomy one of (if not the) oldest science." The same source adds that "many historians consider astronomy to be the oldest science."

This view is consistent across centuries. In 1980, Nobel laureate in Chemistry Gerhard Herzberg wrote: "Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences. Its history goes back to some of the first civilizations."

A 1999 university tutorial opens with the statement: "Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences."

In 2023, astrophysicist and educator Chris Impey stated: "Astronomy is the oldest science, with connections to development of the most important concepts in physics."

The Wikipedia article on the History of Astronomy summarizes: "Astronomy is one of the oldest natural sciences... Astronomy was the first science to have a mathematical foundation."

Evidence of early astronomical awareness includes:

• Prehistoric cave art, such as possible star patterns (e.g., dots interpreted as the Pleiades) in the Lascaux caves (~17,000 years old).

The famous aurochs (bull) painting in the Lascaux caves with a cluster of dots above its back, interpreted by some researchers as the Pleiades star cluster.

• Megalithic structures like Stonehenge (c. 3000–2000 BCE), aligned with solar events such as the summer solstice sunrise.

Sunrise at Stonehenge during the summer solstice, illustrating its astronomical alignment.

• The Nebra sky disc (c. 1600 BCE, Central Europe), one of the oldest known depictions of celestial phenomena.

The Nebra sky disc, the oldest concrete depiction of astronomical phenomena known.

• Systematic records from ancient Mesopotamia, including cuneiform tablets tracking planetary movements.

The Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa, a Babylonian cuneiform record of Venus observations.

Astronomy provided the first mathematical foundations for prediction and was practiced globally long before other sciences emerged.

Chronological list

Ancient and Classical citations

Writing in the 1st century BCE, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio argued: "Astronomy, however, is the most ancient of all the sciences, and the most necessary for the conduct of life."

Pliny the Elder noted in his Natural History (1st century CE): "The science of the stars, which is the most ancient of all, was first taught by the Babylonians."

In the 2nd century CE, Claudius Ptolemy suggested: "Of all the sciences, astronomy is the most beautiful and the most worthy of a free man."

The 7th century scholar Isidore of Seville categorized medicine as a foundational peer: "Medicine is second only to the study of the heavens, being a science of great antiquity that preserves the very frame of man."

Renaissance to the 19th century

In his 1543 masterpiece, Nicolaus Copernicus wrote: "Among the many and varied literary and artistic studies... I think that those should be especially cherished which are concerned with things that are very beautiful... such is the science of astronomy."

William Whewell argued in 1837: "Astronomy is not only the most ancient of the sciences; it is the most perfect."

Auguste Comte wrote in 1853: "Astronomy was the first of the sciences to be emancipated from the influence of theological and metaphysical conceptions."

In 1888, Charles Young observed: "Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, and in a certain sense the most advanced."

20th century citations

Agnes Mary Clerke noted in 1902: "The history of astronomy is the history of the human mind itself, for it is the oldest effort of man to understand his environment."

Arthur Eddington reflected in 1930: "Astronomy is the oldest science, and it remains the most awe-inspiring."

James Jeans wrote in 1943: "The science of the stars is the oldest of all the sciences."

Otto Neugebauer noted in 1957: "Mathematics and astronomy are the only sciences which have a continuous history from antiquity to the present."

Fred Hoyle claimed in 1962: "Astronomy is the oldest science, for the first calendars were the sky."

Isaac Asimov wrote in 1971: "Astronomy is the oldest science, because the stars were the first things man could see but not touch."

A 1980 volume of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada states: "Astronomy, often called the oldest science, began when man first looked up in wonder at the night sky."

Carl Sagan in Cosmos (1980) noted: "Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, and the one that has most changed our view of our place in the universe."

21st century citations

NASA educational materials (2003) state: "Astronomy is the oldest science. It has its roots in the earliest civilizations."

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010) asserts: "Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity."

The European Space Agency (2019) explains: "Monitoring the motions of stars and planets... making astrometry one of the oldest branches of astronomy and the oldest science."

As noted in a 2020 article from Astronomy magazine: "Initially a cosmic curiosity, the night sky was eventually decoded by ancient peoples, making astronomy one of (if not the) oldest science." The same source adds that "many historians consider astronomy to be the oldest science."

The Online Star Register writes: "When ancient people began to use stars as tools to better understand their movements, they unknowingly made astronomy one of the first sciences, if not the oldest science."

The American Physical Society (2021) suggests: "Physics and astronomy often vie for the title of oldest science, but the systematic observation of the heavens came first."

The FIITJEE Global School states: "the historical evidence that includes cave paintings and astronomically aligned prehistoric monuments clearly indicates that astronomy is the oldest science."